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CHAPTER 8 • Managing Change and Innovation 263
which managers have been in their positions for years might need to restructure jobs in
order to retain more ambitious employees by affording them some upward mobility. The
compensation and benefits systems might also need to be reworked to reflect the needs of
a diverse workforce and market forces in which certain skills are in short supply. Employee
attitudes, such as increased job dissatisfaction, may lead to increased absenteeism, resigna-
tions, and even strikes. Such events will, in turn, often lead to changes in organizational
policies and practices.

Who Initiates Organizational Change?

Organizational changes need a catalyst.

People who act as catalysts and assume the responsibility for managing the change process
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are called change agents. WHO can be a change agent?
• Any manager can. We assume organizational change is initiated and carried out by a man-
ager within the organization.
• OR any nonmanager—for example, an internal staff specialist or an outside consultant
whose expertise is in change implementation—can.
For major systemwide changes, an organization will often hire outside consultants for
advice and assistance. Because these consultants come from the outside, they offer an objec-
tive perspective that insiders usually lack. However, the problem is that outside consultants
may not understand the organization’s history, culture, operating procedures, and personnel.
They’re also prone to initiating more drastic changes than insiders—which can be either a
benefit or a disadvantage—because they don’t have to live with the repercussions after the
change is implemented. In contrast, internal managers who act as change agents may be
more thoughtful (and possibly more cautious) because they must live with the consequences
of their actions.

Watch It 1!
If your professor has assigned this, go to the Assignments section of mymanagementlab.com to
complete the video exercise titled Rudi’s Bakery: Organizational Change and Development.

How Does Organizational Change Happen?
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We often use two metaphors in describing the change process. These two metaphors repre-
sent distinctly different approaches to understanding and responding to change. Let’s take a
closer look at each one.

1 What Is thE “calm WatErs” mEtaphor? The “calm waters” metaphor envisions
the organization as a large ship crossing a calm sea. The ship’s captain and crew know
exactly where they’re going because they’ve made the trip many times before. Change
appears as the occasional storm, a brief distraction in an otherwise calm and predictable trip.
Until recently, the “calm waters” metaphor dominated the thinking of practicing managers
and academics. The prevailing model for handling change in such circumstances is best
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illustrated in Kurt Lewin’s three-step description of the change process. (See Exhibit 8–2.)
According to Lewin, successful change requires unfreezing the status quo, changing to a change agents
new state, and freezing the new change to make it permanent. The status quo can be consid- People who act as change catalysts and assume the
ered an equilibrium state. Unfreezing is necessary to move from this equilibrium. It can be responsibility for managing the change process
achieved in one of three ways: “calm waters” metaphor
A description of organizational change that likens
• Increase the driving forces, which direct behavior away from the status quo. that change to a large ship making a predictable
• Decrease the restraining forces, which hinder movement from the existing equilibrium. trip across a calm sea and experiencing an
• Do both. occasional storm